1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an optical disc drive. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical disc drive having an impact absorbing member.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an optical disc drive selectively records and/or reproduces information in an optical recording medium such as a bare compact disc (CD) or a digital video disc (DVD). Typically, such optical disc drives are excellent in a repeated reproduction capacity of data because information is recorded or reproduced using a pickup unit of the non-contact type. However, the optical disc drive using the pickup unit also has drawbacks such as susceptibility to vibration or impact.
Moreover, in more recent optical disc drives, as the disc rotates at high speeds, inhibition or prevention of vibration caused by high speed rotations thereof is increasingly important.
A conventional optical disc drive to which a typical damping device is applied is schematically shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, a typical optical disc drive includes a main chassis 10 and a pickup deck 20 is mounted on the main chassis 10 in such a manner that the pickup deck 20 may move upward and downward. The pickup device 20 includes a turntable 21 on which a disc is placed and a pickup 22 for selectively recording and/or reproducing information while moving in a radial direction of the disc placed on the turntable 21. A disc tray 30 is mounted on the main chassis 10 to slide in and out of the optical disc drive. A damping device 40 is placed between the pickup deck 20 and the main chassis 10 to prevent vibration due to disturbances and noise caused by internal vibration resulting from the driving of an eccentric disc.
The damping device 40 includes three rubber dampers 41, 42 and 43 installed at both sides of a front portion and at the center of a rear portion of the pickup deck 20, respectively.
The rubber dampers 41, 42 and 43 perform a buffering function between the pickup deck 20 and the main chassis 10. Thus, vibration caused by the disturbance is not transmitted to the pickup deck 20. Internal vibrations produced while the eccentric disc is driven are also not transmitted to the periphery. Accordingly, errors may be prevented when the information is recorded or reproduced through the optical disc drive.
However, conventional damping devices as described above may have the following problems: (1) the use of three rubber dampers 41, 42 and 43 increases material costs; and (2) the pollution of adjacent, for example, a DC motor 23 for driving the pickup 22 may be contaminated by a contaminant such as sulfur generated from the rubber dampers and result in a failure thereof.
Moreover, when the optical disc drive apparatus receives a relatively strong impact, for example, when the optical disc drive apparatus is dropped, the rubber dampers 41, 42 and 43 may not totally absorb impact. In this case, the pickup deck 20 may bend, thus, preventing the disc drive from being driven.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved optical disc drive having improved impact resistance, lower material costs, and which prevents contamination of adjacent parts.